Estimating the performance of multi-level inventory systems
Operations Research
An (S-1,S) inventory system with emergency orders
Operations Research
Modelling emergency lateral transshipments in inventory systems
Management Science
Quick response in manufacturer-retailer channels
Management Science - Special issue on frontier research in manufacturing and logistics
Backup agreements in fashion buying—the value of upstream flexibility
Management Science
The Quantity Flexibility Contract and Supplier-Customer Incentives
Management Science
Simulation Modeling and Analysis
Simulation Modeling and Analysis
Coordination and Flexibility in Supply Contracts with Options
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
A Two-Location Inventory Model with Transshipment and Local Decision Making
Management Science
Incentives for Transshipment in a Supply Chain with Decentralized Retailers
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
Good and Bad News About the (S, T) Policy
Manufacturing & Service Operations Management
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In this paper, we discuss the replenishment decision of seasonal products in a two-echelon distribution system consisting of a supplier and multiple retailers. Because of long manufacturing lead time, the supplier orders its entire stock for the season well in advance. The retailers, on the other hand, can replenish their inventory from the supplier throughout the season as demand realizes. Demand at each retailer follows a Poisson process. Each retailer order incurs a fixed cost, and the usual understocking and overstocking costs occur. When retailer lead time is negligible, we show that it is optimal for the retailer to follow a time-based, order-up-to policy and order only when inventory is depleted. We also characterize the structure of the optimal policy and propose a number of heuristics for easier computation. For the supplier, we express the distribution of total demand. This allows the supplier to solve a classic newsvendor problem to determine the total stock for the season. We find that the optimal retailer policy can sometimes cause large demand variation for the supplier, resulting in lower supplier profit. In centralized settings, this may even result in lower system profit than some naïve retailer heuristics, creating inefficiency in the supply chain. We offer insights on potential causes and managerial implications.